Written by Well this is a surprise.
In an interesting twist, it has just been announced that actress Kristen Wiig has joined the “Masters of the Universe” film cast as the Heroic Mechanical Warrior known as Roboto.
Here is the exclusive report from the very reliable The Hollywood Reporter (which was later confirmed by Mattel):
“Roboto has found his, or in this case, her voice.
The Masters of the Universe character, a mechanical warrior, will be voiced by Kristen Wiig in Amazon MGM Studios and Mattel’s big-budget and big-screen feature, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.”
In the past, Roboto has been a character that has been associated with a male body-type and a male voice artist.
Considering that, it will be interesting to see what director Travis Knight has in store for audiences by casting Kristen Wiig as the mechanical heroic warrior (an actress most famous her comedic performances).
The “Masters of the Universe” Movie is currently in Post-Production with the film scheduled to be released in cinemas worldwide on June 5th, 2026.
We’ll see you next time!
Wut Da Fuk
My family discussed this and we are split on it. On one hand Kristen is a hilarious comedian that will keep us laughing the whole entire movie but on the other hand we don’t like losing Roboto’s core traits. I think it his will be one of those wait and see things.
Interesting choice. I don’t know her, but I’m going to get the info I need to get a better picture.
Dumb choice. There is no reason to gender swap a role even if a robot. The reactions online have been mixed for this movie. I feel they’d do better not trying to reinvent the wheel. If they insist on finding a comedic role for her because someone working on the film is a fan, she would have worked better as a Dree Elle or new character.
@firefly just ignore the dozens of men who voice women and vice versa.
Oh for christ’s sake.
Things you absolutely shouldn’t do in 2025 when bringing a franchise back…
‘But it’s only a robot!’. Then if it isn’t important at all why piss off fans? He’s also a character who develops, robot or not, and has been male since the 1980s across every iteration. So, again, why change what the fans are expecting?
My best guess is, ‘Shit! We’ve only got two or three female characters!’. Like anybody outside of Hollywood genuinely cares.
Oh come on. All in the name of inclusion. What a joke.
She might be a better Orko. Who said she would be gender swapping anybody. She’s done the voice of male characters I believe
What male characters has she done?
@bonezone I could be wrong, but I think she played an old wizard in SpongeBob
@bonezone I could be wrong, but I think she played an old wizard in SpongeBob
Maybe there will be two Robotos.
Whatever you think of it this movie needs another red flag about as much as China does… the mere perception of ‘woke’ is screen poison now, pretending otherwise is foolish.
Wdym
That anything that even sniffs of DEI gets immediately called out now because Hollywood handled all that like a wrecking ball previously.
In this movie’s case you’ve got dodgy AF Jared Leto as Skeletor, a black Duncan, an apparently female Roboto, the potential for a chunk of the movie to be set on Earth (the single biggest complaint previously), and a fucking ludicrous cast list they can’t ever hope to do justice. The movie really doesn’t need the bad press a gender swap immediately brings. Just look at any comment section for this announcement and we haven’t even got a snippet of dialogue yet.
TRUST IN TRAVIS KNIGHT!
This has to be Chilly Tee himself or his loser dad posting on here.
Chilly Tee has done jackshit for trust, hes nothing but a weird nepo baby, that had to have his daddy push out a fucking legend, so his dead beat brat son had something for a career.
Im not even complaining that a female is playing roboto, this movie has so much negative going for it. Will just complain that shes not funny at all.
It is too early to tell what they are doing with Roboto but since Kristen is an accomplished actor I suspect it will be a substantial roll. While I am not against this at face value I will miss the surrogate brother relationship Roboto has with Teela that was perfected in Masters of the Universe Revelation.
You don’t come off very well here.
Agreed. And Idris Elba is perfect for Duncan
I love her and think she can be very funny. Have no clue about her voice work.
Way too early for outrage. Not sure, wait and see I guess. I love Roboto but if they change the character, I’m ok as long as it’s good. Maybe they will change her voice and it’s all traditional 🤷
But, we also already had a kick@$$ Mosquit’ra, so…
Yes these choices may bring out the trolls on social media, (many of which do this to cash in!). And the President lol. But maybe we shouldn’t let those trolls dictate what we do.
Trust in Travis Knight, don’t feed the outrage.
I’m happy to wait until I see the movie before forming an opinion either way.
God…. I HATE Kristen Wig. She’s not funny at all and her voice is incredibly grating. Even if they don’t gender swap Roboto (which would be a massive disservice to the character and the relationship he has with Duncan and Teela) I do not, at all want to hear her voice. I don’t know why Hollywood is SO obsessed with casting well-known actors for voice roles instead of the many talented, professional voice actors in the industry. Every animated film that casts a well-known Hollywood star in a voice role always ends up terrible. Bowser and Mario from the animated film being chief examples of this. Cast professional voice actors in voice acting roles. Look at how talented someone like John DiMaggio is in his voice work as opposed to someone like Chris Pratt.
Wiig was probably the best part of the awful female led Ghostbusters movie, but I’d have preferred her to have a more physical presence in this film. DEI is a good cause and has been a part of so many good projects dating back to when I was a nipper, it isn’t new, but to the current all too easily led and whacked generation, it’s box office poison and there’s just way too many grifters who will turn people away from this and now they have the ammunition, because it includes someone from bloody Ghostbusters 2016.
Basically this movie needs ‘normies’ yesterday. We aren’t enough to make this a box office hit and you have to remember the budget for these things and that cinema attendance is pathetic now. Also, every headline and subtitle will say Amazon movie, and you know how quickly stuff reaches Prime.
No matter what anybody thinks about Twitter, YouTube or whatever the result is always the same. People call out swaps because at heart everybody knows there’s zero need for them. You can’t claim to be true to the franchise then start changing it. Look at the damage done to Revelation, it’s time everybody involved smelt the coffee.
But you know what really causes all the toxicity? The crowing about it by the studios. If they’d said nothing and just gotten on with it practically nobody would have noticed. Two perfect examples? CGI MOTU and She-Ra on Netflix – swaps and representation to all fuck and nobody cared because, first and foremost, they were QUALITY and just got the job done without seeking approval from a mythical audience who have never shown up for anything. The crowing creates toxicity before you even launch.
When Rockstar have to put in their SEC filing that GTA might be negatively affecting by online perception and backlash, you can bet your ass culture has shifted away from faux representation.
Thanks for this, I’ve noticed this going on a lot. It’s a “cottage" industry now. Nothing more. They have invaded new forums looking to stir up issues. IE …find and convert new members for the “you should be mad at EVERY angle at a movie because it represents some infraction to you as a person in life", “so support said “self anointed YouTube leaders" slick outrage cash grab. It’s been proven to pay well. That is, until the bubble burst on these schemes. I’ve seen folks who have decided to make “reviews" their careers online and pivot to this when they never did it previously. I’ve had my suspicions about a few here and I suspect it may grow since .org shut down and the new movie is fast approaching. There aren’t any sites that speak extensively about this specific universe. While I get there are concerns of this movie ( such as way too many characters, that may signal a go big one and done ) and certain castings and how to connect things, just let it play out. I hope this site can withstand the invasion. I’m sure the Roboto character will have a voice modulator that so much can be done with to alter a characters voice. I want something waaay different from the 87 movie and it appears we are getting something closer to the cartoons. I want it to be amazing but heck, I’ll take another cult classic at this point because it’s been too long. There are a lot of vultures waiting to get there hands on this movie that never had the passion most of us have here. They are fly by night agitators that will attempt the grift then move on to the next after. Trust me.
I have never contributed in one of these discussions before but I find comments here more palatable than what I find on social media. Even if I strongly disagree with a comment it usually seems to have some thought behind it. What I find most appealing is the news writeup itself. The news I see is written without opinion and generally optimistic.
Sorry, but you also have to accept that the Youtubers got where they are because they were willing to call out the nonsense when nobody else would. And grifters or not (many aren’t!), why on Earth does Hollywood keep giving them ammunition?
Not only does the unnecessary swapping etc tie a millstone round the project, it emboldens said Youtubers. It’s not like Hollywood doesn’t understand this, just look at Disney taking the ‘queer’ out of countless projects now. Something they always did in China anyway!
There will always be a market for calling out hypocrisy and sideways racism etc. And indeed ordinary punters rightfully doing the same. You can’t tar everybody with the same brush, that’s exactly what the studios did and why just about every major franchise got or is getting rebooted!
So this announcement doesn’t particularly concern me one way or the other (I’m unfamiliar with Kristen Wiig, and Roboto’s among my least favourite characters so he could be voiced by the guy who did Postman Pat for all I care), but it’s got me excited for another reason: hopefully this means we’ll start hearing about other voice actors doing CGI characters soon. Orko, Cringer and Battle-Cat perhaps!
@owenmorton I hope so
That’s if this version of Cringer and Battle Cat even speaks.
They better give Roboto a huge rack then if they’re gender swapping him!
They’ll probably distort the voice through a modifier program, and we’ll only know it’s Kristen Wiig when she’s mentioned in the credits.